Awsomeness of Emulators

[Chrome]

I just downloaded an PSX emulator! Took a little while to get all the plugins and configurations right and i still need a better graphics card, BUT! I can put a PSX disc into my ROM Drive, and....it plays! ha ha, i haven't seen anything so awsome since, trans siberian orchestra came by!

anyway, who else uses a PC emulator? I also have one for the N64 and SNES

 

[lawtonfogle]

they are illegal, but i have one for my SNES since my real SNES broke. Actually, it was my third SNES. Problem with the sites you get them from is that they usally have bad links all overthem.

 

[Crono]

Actually, the emulators themselves are not illegal; only the ROMs are illegal. Also, from my understanding, the ROMs aren't illegal either if you own a copy of the game. I have ROMs for all of the games I own simply because it's easier to play them on my computer than to hook up the system.

 

[Chrome]

yeah, if you read alot of the legal stuff around the emulators, they will say that its legal to download stuff if you own an original copy. I've seen a site with Mp3s from games that were only legal to download if you owned a copy of the soundtrack. The PS1 emulator i downloaded didn't have the BIOS file, so i had to go find it, and, you guessed it, was only legal for download if i owned a playstation.

 

[Breetai]

Also, from my understanding, the ROMs aren't illegal either if you own a copy of the game.

It depends which country that you live in. I'm pretty sure that ROMS are illegal in the USA whether you own the original game or not. The copyright laws protect them there.

I could be wrong on the USA bit. I've never lived in that country, so I've never cared enough to look very deeply into that situation there. From what I have read, I assume that ROMS are illegal there in every circumstance.

 

[LondonsBurning]

Any Nintendo ROMs (for any one of their systems) are illegal no matter what:

http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#roms

 

[Breetai]

These are US copyright laws.

 

[HeSaveDave]

I wonder why they are illegal if they don't sell them anymore. It never made sense to me. They're not losing any money. Anyone know more on this?

 

[LondonsBurning]

I wonder why they are illegal if they don't sell them anymore. It never made sense to me. They're not losing any money. Anyone know more on this?

Because Copyrights on product don't expire for 75 years. These companies will own the rights to this stuff until 75 years after they are released.

You do the math and figure out that even the First Super Mario Bros. won't be Public Domain for a LONG time.

 

[Qyöt27]

Not to mention that if the plans for the next Nintendo console go through to the letter, those games will be made available again in some form, directly from Nintendo.

Of course, I'm not without fault here. I use the things too.

 

[HeSaveDave]

Well when the revolution comes out and I can buy them. I will do so. Sounds good to me. It's about time.

 

[Crono]

Any Nintendo ROMs (for any one of their systems) are illegal no matter what:

http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#roms

I'm familiar with Nintendo's take on the issue, but I honestly do not consider it a reliable source. Nintendo's statement on the danger of emulators and ROMs seems greatly exaggerated to me. Nintendo is notorious for being overly protective of its intellectual property even to the extent of breaking the law itself (during the days of the NES, it was found guilty in many lawsuits regarding the restrictions it placed on third-party developers to protect its games). I've never heard about the illegality of ROMs from any other source, especially one that has legal credibility, and from what I know about the intellectual property laws for other types of media (like music and software), I don't think that there's a problem with it.

 

[Breetai]

I wonder why they are illegal if they don't sell them anymore. It never made sense to me. They're not losing any money. Anyone know more on this?

They do still sell many old games. They are losing money to emulation.

One of Nintendo's main marketing stratagies is to resell old versions of new games. The old NES Mario games have been re-released every half decade or so. The new Nintendo system will support the older games. One of the selling points of the Gamecube at one point was that it game bundled with old versions of Zelda games. They are very much still selling old games.

 

[WhirlwindMonk]

I love emulators. They allow me to play games that are not otherwise available to me. I have an snes emulator and use it to play the original star ocean, an awesome game that was only released in japan, but a US group translated. I also use it to demo games. I have a GBA, and if a game comes out that looks interesting, I'll download the rom and play it for a couple days to see if I like it or not, and then if I don't, I delete it, if I do, I buy it. Or at least, save up my money to buy it.

 

[Breetai]

...if I do (like the game), I buy it. Or at least, save up my money to buy it.

Right...

 

[WhirlwindMonk]

Right...

Hey hey hey! I don't cheat game companies that produce good products and that I respect.

 

[Bunnaroo]

Guys, I land on the side of the emulators on this one. I make it a point not to pick up a game less than 10 years old, since those are economically viable.

However, there were hundreds of games created for some consoles that I never saw. The translated versions of Japanese games is a plus, since we English speaking people would never have gotten to play them at all. When a company re-releases a title, it's usually because it was a good seller, what about the others that sold average or marginally? They won't be re-released. Also, some of these companies are no longer in existence, who is going to sue?

How is this different from taping songs off the radio? For that matter, isn't this like the secondary market for the games? If I sold, or even gave, my game to another person, I didn't pay royalties to the creating company. Did they lose money? Actually they received some exposure to another person, so they have a reputation for their next game release.

May $.02, worth what you paid for it.

 

[cyberfugue]

I've played around with a number of emulators. My favorite is an old Apple II emulator - I've played some really old games with it that I loved when I was a kid.

 

[Biarien]

What I have heard is that an emulator is legal to download if you own the system and a ROM is legal to download if you own the game.

However, you can also download ROMs (and I would assume emulators) for a 24 hour period even if you don't own the system.

I heard this from a discussion on the same subject elsewhere and I haven't really looked into it, so... *throws two pennies into topic*

 

[steverock]

What I have heard is that an emulator is legal to download if you own the system and a ROM is legal to download if you own the game.

However, you can also download ROMs (and I would assume emulators) for a 24 hour period even if you don't own the system.

I heard this from a discussion on the same subject elsewhere and I haven't really looked into it, so... *throws two pennies into topic*

emulators arent illegal at all, you can have them on your system as long as you want. ROMs are illegal in the ways that you said (at least thats what ive read). there used to be loads of sites to get them from without a problem but theyve been shut down and if they're still around they only have the emulators which suggests to me that they are fine.
if Nintendo, Sega or Sony made ROMs available to purchase from them as if you were buying the game i would buy so many old games and im sure many others would aswell so i think they are missing out on a huge potential gap in the market. if the Revolution plan of making all of nintendos old games available for download i would have to say that would be possibly the smartest move that Nintendo could ever make and if its successful then id imagine all other games companies would jump on the bandwagon. think of an iTunes for games!! the only thing that would make it a flop is if they charged more than a tenner per game as people will just look on eBay to get it cheaper or the same price but with packaging. if it all works according to the plan and is reasonably priced i might be tempted into getting a Revolution after i get my shiny new PS3!!